The Gunpowder Will Come

The gunpowder will come. Nothing can stop it — the same old story over and over. Man will increase, and men will fight. The gunpowder will enable men to kill millions of men, and in this way only, by fire and blood, will a new civilization, in some remote day, be evolved. And of what profit will it be? Just as the old civilization passed, so will the new. It may take fifty thousand years to build, but it will pass. All things pass.

James Howard Smith The Scarlet Plague (1912) by Jack London

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Context: One grandson dreams of rediscovering gunpowder so he can rule over the others.

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Source: Chapter VI

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